Jester's hood - Cap 'n' bells Century: XIII, XIV, XV

A spacious medieval headwear reaching the forearms. This model of a jester’s hood is made of wool in two contrastive colors. It has a linen, pleasant to touch lining. The collar of our cap ’n’ bells covers most of the torso. The horns are finished with round bells. You can wear this jester’s hood with spacious garments (like robe), as well as with clothing fitted to body shape (like jopula), preferably multicolored.

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Cap ’n’ bells jester hat in sources

Sources with this example of a jester hat can be found in the 14th century manuscripts. On the pages of The Luttrell Psalter you can notice depictions of medieval jesters wearing hoods with long horns (or ears), finished with round bells. The work is dated back to 1325-1340.

The clothing of a medieval jester

It wasn’t hard to recognize a jester in medieval times - usually he significantly distinguished himself with his clothes. Towards the end of age people often wore colorful costumes, fools combined them in even more daring ways, for example as a colorful chess board theme. Costumes were also decorated with cutouts, bells, pointy shoes, and special scepter.

The most eye-catching element of the jester's costume seems to be his headwear. Usually it had a form of unusual hat or hood. It could have a form of horns with bells (Cap ’n’ bells), cockscomb crest, or donkey’s ears. The bells in his hat attracted the attention of courtiers and portended the appearance of a fool.

What are the types of medieval headwear?

Similarly to the outer garment, headwears speaks of the social status and in case of women of their marital status. In medieval iconography hardly ever can we find figures without any head wear. During all the period of the Middle Ages a hood was the most widespread head wear. Its functions were protective and sometimes symbolic, ritual or representative. Medieval headwear includes: caps, hats, coifs, hoods, kerchiefs and others. Hoods were often made of cloth, however caps and hats were made of felt.